


New Year's Kiss the First

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Any fandom, Any slash pairing, An unexpected kiss as the clock strikes midnight on New Years (first time fic).</i> Rodney contemplates his first year on Atlantis and how he's still alone, and gets a surprise from the mathematician he's been crushing on all year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Year's Kiss the First

New Year's Eve on Atlantis. They were celebrating it not by earth or even Atlantis's calendar but by their own. Their first year on the city. They'd survived. John had been teaching Teyla about Earth holiday traditions for the week leading up to the holiday, and she'd rallied some of her people from New Athos to join the city for the celebration, so the habitable areas were twice as crowded as usual, and Rodney had retreated to one of the balconies to escape the noise and press of bodies. One year on Atlantis. One year that they'd survived. Rodney was so sure it was going to be a one-way trip, but now they could go home.  
  
He'd always prided himself on his ability to be alone, to soldier on through any loneliness, but hearing the others describe their joy at being able to receive messages from home (or worse, seeing the others hook up, seeing their afterglow faces and secret smiles) had driven home the fact that he had been pretty damn alone for a year. He'd come on this expedition, this possible one-way trip, because he didn't have anyone tying him to earth. But he didn't have anyone tying him to Atlantis either.  
  
And the one person he did want for a little tying up...  
  
John Sheppard was never _alone_. At first Rodney had thought it absurd, that they'd send a deaf person along on the expedition, because they were going to an alien galaxy, and who knew what dangers they faced? When he'd seen the math John was capable of, he understood why the IOA might want to make an exception for him. And when he'd seen John's interpreter, a polite, handsome, efficient Air Force Major named Evan Lorne, who was also John's protector, he'd seen the merit in having John along. John's skills had been invaluable in multiple situations, and his strong expression of the ATA gene necessary to the expedition, but everywhere John went, Lorne went too, and that man didn't miss a thing. He had the hearing of a bat and could pick out someone saying John's name from across a crowded room, so John never missed out when someone needed him or just wanted to talk to him.  
  
So Rodney didn't talk to him unless he had to, and watched him more than he probably ought to, because John was unfairly attractive. Rodney knew he was probably stereotyping when he'd expected John to be nervous and diffident around people who could hear, but John's brazenness and flirtiness and assertiveness had caught him off guard, and Rodney had found himself blushing and stammering more than once when he was one receiving end of one of John's easy grins.  
  
Rodney decided that he needed to make a new year's resolution, and that was to stop staring at John so much. Or maybe learn some ASL.  
  
Behind him, the chatter had turned into a concerted chorus, and Rodney realized. The countdown. The engineers had even rigged up a ball to drop, and a couple of the chemists had cooked up some fireworks.  
  
Ten. Nine.  
  
Someone tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
Rodney started violently and turned.  
  
John stood behind him, smirking in amusement, hands in his pockets.  
  
Six, five.  
  
"John?" Rodney asked.  
  
_Rodney,_ he mouthed.  
  
Three, two.  
  
John leaned in and kissed him.  
  
The floor shook when someone stomped. Hard. John pulled back and sighed soundlessly, turned.  
  
Lorne stood in the doorway, hands poised to sign. He turned pink.  
  
"Oh. Right. No translating necessary. I'm just going to – send him back to his room in one piece, McKay, and I swear, if you hurt him –"  
  
John made an impatient chatting gesture with one hand, shooed Lorne away with a flick of his wrist. Lorne beat a hasty retreat.  
  
"Um," Rodney began.  
  
John kissed him again, mouthed against his lips, "Happy New Year."


End file.
